| dc.description.abstract | The act on National Education (Act no. 39 of 1967) demands Christian education in government schools. Such Christian education should be presented by the teachers. It follows that the kind of education practised by a teacher will be co-determined by the kind of training he has received and particularly by the Educational trend current at his institution. In South Africa at Afrikaans medium educational institutions two kinds of Education are presented at present, viz, the Christian and the phenomenological, each of which is based on a particular scientific view. In this dissertation an analysis from various sources has been made of the more significant characteristics of the underlying scientific concepts, with the aim to determine the nature of the two kinds of Education. From an analysis of the two concepts of science and its implications for Education, it became evident that: (a) Phenomenological Education is not capable of supplying complete answers to cardinal educational problems owing to its dualistic concept of truth and limited scientific sources. As a result of its aims phenomenological Education is of little value for the training of teachers who are expected to teach in Christian schools, especially as it is unwilling to prescribe to educational practice, and also as it is not willing and cannot, as a result of the limited scientific sources and its formal nature (lack of contents), do so. (b) In contrast Christian Education accepts the Holy Scripture as a scientific source and can therefore supply better answers to educational issues and is utilised with a view to the improvement of educational practice. It is, therefore, recommended for use at a Christian teachers' training institute. Christian Education, however, still faces problems that need enlightenment and solution and many research fields are still to be discovered and explored. | en_US |
